Personal Narrative: Magic Tree Home

As I look back on my childhood, I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t fond of reading. I love the way a good book just draws you in and it is almost impossible to set it down because you want to know what happens next! Looking back to my earliest moments I can always remember my mom and grandma always reading me books for hours and hours at a time. My favorite saying when I was younger was, “just read one more!” I couldn’t go to sleep without my mom at least reading me five books! My favorite was “The Little Mermaid” but I loved all of the princess books and I had possibly every one you could think of!

Most of what I can remember from my childhood is being read to by my mom and her teaching me how to read, alongside my older sister. During the day all that I wanted to do was have my mom read to me, so she would. And every night before I went to bed she would let me pick one book for her to read to me. It was my favorite part of everyday. It wasn’t just at home that people would read to me, my grandma would too whenever we went to her house. She had this book full of short stories that always had a good lesson at the end. I loved hearing my grandma’s soothing voice right before I fell asleep. My favorite book was “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish” by Dr. Seuss. Since my mom read it to me at least once everyday, I began to memorize it. I wasn’t actually reading the words on the page, I just knew the story so well that I could recite it.

One of my favorite and earliest memories of reading, is when my mom used to read to my little brother and I before bedtime when we were very young. My absolute favorite was Bears in the Night by Stan and Jan Bernstein. Eventually when I got older, a book a night was not satisfying me. Soon I read all the books on the book shelf. Spending hours in my room reading was my idea of “fun”. Going back to elementary school, I would check out about

My love of reading blossomed when I was a child, because my parents showed me how wonderful reading is. There were countless nights when I remember myself as a little girl refusing to go to sleep before ‘tucking dad into bed’ by reading him a picture book. Not only did I uphold that tradition though, but my mother is a preschool teacher, so she gets really into reading out loud, and she would help me read books such as The Boxcar Children set, The Secret of NIMH and The Chronicles of Narnia weekly until I didn’t need help anymore.

As a six-month-old baby books had opened up a whole entire new world of experience for me. My inspiration to learn how to read and write was encouraged by my Mother and Grandmother. This is because they read out loud to me before bed occasionally and gave me the best time of my life by introducing me to a library. By two years of age I developed speech and other communication skills. This helped me understand and develop a favorite book, “PJ Funny Bunny,” and I would stare at the pages pretending I was reading them. I would continually pretend to read with other Dr. Seuss books, Smurf pop-up books (I imagined I was a part of these for hours), sniff & scratches, and sensory books. I had just begun

I was not always a fan of reading though. I blame this on the type of school teachers I have in my secondary level education. It was not until I got to community college where I began an appreciation for both reading and writing. The first book that grabbed me was The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, which is Walls’ memoir that focused on the events of growing up with her family that, at times, caused her to be homeless--among other harsh situations.

My dad started reading to me when I was around the age of four or five. I was specifically interested in the book How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?. My dad read that to me probably every night for two months, until I could “read” it back to him. The reason “read” is in quotations is because I really only memorized the book and the order he would say the words, but looking back now, I think I give a lot of credit for that time in helping me stay ahead in my reading classes. Being able to recognize what certain words looked like helped me make new words and build sentences a little quicker than most kids my age.

The first book I remember reading was Go Dogs Go by P.D. Eastman. I would read that book once a day with my mother, and never get tired of it. Then other books like The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hears a Who, and many other Dr. Seuss books came next. I couldn’t read enough of them growing up through kindergarten and first grade. Then all of a sudden I moved to Chelan and forced to read to meet my AR goal. Now, I am not trying to blame Accelerated Reader for my lack of motivation to read today, but I do believe it played a role in how I began to hate reading in elementary school.

My earliest reading memory was when I was five with the little golden book series. I loved getting new books and reading them. But most of all I loved when my mother read to me so I could look at the pictures as my imagination went wild with stories about Jack climbing up the beanstalk or a king searching a kingdom for a worthy princess.

Every night my mom would read me a chapter or two of a “Junie B Jones” book. I couldn't wait until I was old enough to read by myself. I enjoyed reading when I first learned how. The first series I really liked was “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”. I’ve read every single book in the series. Whenever a new book from the series would come out, i’d get it first thing the next day. I never really read that often after I finished the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series. Those books really entertained me and anything else I read from the point didn't sway me. In fourth grade, I had a really awesome teacher that was really hard on me, but I really believe she helped me the most. I don't remember everything we did, I really don’t remember most of the stuff we did. I just remember getting to 5th grade and writing was so easy for me. So was math, science, etc.

Even if I refused to read on my own, my dad still read to me every single night right when I would go to bed. That was something I loved, and would never turn down as a young child. He read many

As the years went on, I continued to read. I would read books any time I got the chance. Sixth grade was one of my favorite years. We were able to read for half an hour every day. We also read in book club. We were required to read two books a month, but I usually read four or five. I loved to find new series that I liked.

I remember my mom reading to me in Spanish was I was about four years old. The smell of Cuban coffee would fill up the room every night as I was being read to. I would always play out the stories in my head I would go to sleep. This always had a positive impact as I grew older and wiser. Although I had never stopped using my imagination, especially when it came to books. I was inspired to read to my younger sister and teach her all that I had already learned. Reading is very fun to me, I find it entertaining when I digest a good book that has the right material. I have my mother to thank for having read to me when I was younger. The foundation to my interest in books started at a very young age and it was right along her side. Until this day

When I was a child I loved being read to, it was my absolute favorite. My mom likes to remind me that I would often pull a book from the shelf and take it to the nearest person for an impromptu story time. I was about four when I shut down another kid for interrupting story time by asking him: “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Once I learned

Reading has been one of my favorite hobbies since I was a little child. I grew up as a normal child should grow and eventually I had to start learning for me to fit in society. My literacy started many years ago, after I knew how to talk and communicate with people. Reading my alphabet was quite stressful and I had to be given a hand by my family members. I remember my parents reading with me and it was the most meaningful and memorable way to spend time with me. This is because I liked reading a lot and I was eager to learn so that I could fit in with my older siblings. My favorite books were storybooks taking about adventures and fairytales